Debra Winger

I read the piece on Debra Winger several times and I still cannot figure out what it was all about. What does it mean? Who cares? Is this all you are going to offer me in a section dedicated to the arts? I think all you people really deserve Dan Quayle. RICHARD REBHUN W. Hollywood

With two productions running on Broadway this fall, David Mamet is once again the talk of New York theater. And talk is the operative word for his new play, "The Anarchist," starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger. This 75-minute, two-character drama is by all reports a dense, loquacious conversation that could prove challenging for most audiences. "The Anarchist," which opened Sunday at the John Golden Theatre, consists entirely of an extended dialogue between a longtime incarcerated leftist radical (LuPone)

Debra Winger will take the place of Laurie Metcalf in the Broadway cast of David Mamet's upcoming play "The Anarchist," alongside Patti LuPone. Metcalf withdrew after a scheduling conflict. Winger's profile has risen in recent years, after she took a self-imposed six-year hiatus from Hollywood. She's made occasional appearances on television, including a 2010 turn on "Law & Order," HBO's "In Treatment" and an onscreen comeback with Jonathan Demme's 2008 feature, "Rachel Getting Married.

Debra Winger will take the place of Laurie Metcalf in the Broadway cast of David Mamet's upcoming play "The Anarchist," alongside Patti LuPone. Metcalf withdrew after a scheduling conflict. Winger's profile has risen in recent years, after she took a self-imposed six-year hiatus from Hollywood. She's made occasional appearances on television, including a 2010 turn on "Law & Order," HBO's "In Treatment" and an onscreen comeback with Jonathan Demme's 2008 feature, "Rachel Getting Married.

Excuse me! I read the entire interview with Debra Winger and I could not understand one thing she said when being quoted. Maybe her problem is that she cannot communicate with people unless she uses a script. NANCY LOTTMAN Villa Park

Before taking on the lead for "The Newsroom,"HBO's intense drama exploring the behind-the-scenes frenzy of a cable news network, Jeff Daniels received some counsel from the man formerly known as Tony Soprano. "James said, 'Get sleep,'" Daniels said, recalling a conversation with James Gandolfini, Daniels' costar in the smash Broadway production of "God of Carnage. " The star of"The Sopranos" was trying to warn Daniels, whose wide-ranging career had been mostly anchored in movies and theater, about the grueling demands of a high-profile TV series.

Lisa Blount, who played Debra Winger's best friend in the 1982 movie "An Officer and a Gentleman" and later shared an Academy Award as executive producer of the live-action short film "The Accountant," was found dead in her home in Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday by her mother. She was 53. Blount, the wife of actor and filmmaker Ray McKinnon, was found in bed holding a cellphone, which she had last used Monday when she told a friend she wasn't feeling well, according to Little Rock police.

Happiness is overrated. At least, that's what Gabriel Byrne believes. "There's too much pressure to be happy in this culture," insists the Irish star of HBO's therapy drama "In Treatment. " "We're constantly told that happiness is so accessible, but life isn't like that. Life is a gradual process of acceptance. Once you understand that, you can find some measure of contentment. " As he lounges on an old sofa at HBO headquarters in New York ? the kind of couch that Freud could've read a lot into ?

SERIES Inside the Actors Studio: Director James Cameron ("Avatar") is James Lipton's guest in this new episode (7 p.m. Bravo). How I Met Your Mother: The gang tries to convince Ted (Josh Radnor) that Tiffany (Carrie Underwood) is stringing him along. Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris also star in this new episode (8 p.m. CBS). The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love: Jake's family meets the two finalists before Jake makes his final decision in the season finale (8 p.m. ABC)

Polanski case: An article in Tuesday's Section A about Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland misstated actress Debra Winger's role at the Zurich Film Festival. She is president of the festival jury, not the festival itself.

FOR A period in the early '80s, no one could do it like Debra Winger. She was just 25 years old when she made "Urban Cowboy," and her emotionally ferocious performance sent shock waves through the movie world. In the film, when she asks costar John Travolta if he's a "real cowboy," audiences could immediately grasp what Winger was all about: Here was the kind of woman who craved the truth and had to seek it out. In 1982, she gave Richard Gere all he could handle in "An Officer and a Gentleman."

Big Hollywood studios will take a back seat at this year's Venice Film Festival, with the competition lineup highlighting independent U.S. cinema, Italian productions and Japanese animation movies. Last year, U.S. and British movies dominated the lineup, with nearly half of the films in the main competition. This year, only five English-language movies will vie for the top prize at the world's oldest film festival. It opens Aug. 27. Among them is Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married," starring Anne Hathaway and Debra Winger in the story of an ex-model returning home for her sister's wedding after spending 10 years in and out of rehabilitation centers.

She may be well versed in Tolstoy and James Agee these days, but Debra Winger would still feel just fine taking a ride on that mechanical bull. Debra Winger--remember her? If your memory span is short or you're under say, 30, you have every right not to. She was last on the screen in the very forgettable "Forget Paris" opposite Billy Crystal. That was six years ago.